Author: daveleu

Yesterday, the Diamond-Shield technician came to our RV to inspect the front left quarter panel to see if the paint had cured enough to apply this protective sheeting.  Diamond-Shield is a clear plastic like sheeting which protects the paint from rock dings and paint etchings caused from bug splatters and bird poop, and other environmental impacts.  After his inspection, he recommended that we wait until Monday before the Diamond-Shield is applied.  He was worried that if the paint was not cured enough, it would pull off as he applied the sheeting.  Not wanting to have to return to the paint bay to repaint this panel if that should happen, we agreed to wait.  Ugh!

 

On the positive side, we now know that we will be able to return to the road and continue our journey of exploring the US this Monday.  Also, even if he had been able to apply the sheeting on Friday afternoon, we had already made the decision to stay put and hunker down here in Red Bay, Alabama on Saturday.  We had been watching another massive cold front working its way toward us, bringing high winds, possible tornados and tons of rain.  We certainly did not wish to be out on the road as it slowly passed over Alabama on Saturday.  Thus, we are only postponing our departure one day by waiting until Monday morning to have the Diamond Shield applied.

 

Today, Saturday, as copious amounts of rain was belting LeuC throughout the day, Mary Margaret and I spent our time planning our escape from the Tiffin Service Center this Monday.  We have decided that our goal will be to arrive in the Washington D.C. area by May 24^th.  Mary Margaret has two sisters who live there.  One of them, Gaby and her husband are going on a cruise during the end of May and early June so she wanted to arrive in time to see them before they left.  Also, we wish to participate in the celebration of our niece’s eldest son’s high school graduation.  Katherine, who is one of the daughters of Mary Margaret’s other sister, Lonie, also lives in Washington D. C. with her husband, Morgan, and their two boys.  We figure that by spending two weeks in the D. C. area, we would be able to do the above plus spend time visiting Lonie, her husband, Rich, and Lonie’s youngest daughter, Sara, who also lives nearby with her young daughter, Finn.  Lots of family in that area and what a great way to see them again and catch up.

 

With this destination and timing in mind, we rolled up our sleeves and poured over our various resources to determine where we wanted to stop and explore as we headed north.  Of course, with the knowledge that we needed to go north, we decided our first stop would be south of us! 

 

Two days drive to the south is where our former brother-in-law, Larry, and his wife, Ruth, live.  They were kind enough to drive to New Orleans to visit us last month and we have been anxious to swing by their home in Marianna, Florida.

 

From there, we will head east to explore the famous Okefenokee Swamp and the Suwannee River which flows from it.  The Okefenokee is the largest “blackwater” swamp in North America and covers roughly 700 square miles. It is mostly located in the southeastern corner of Georgia but does extend into the northern edge of Florida.  We plan on camping first at the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park for a few days and then move on to the Stephen C. Foster State Park.  The difference between these two state parks is the former is located on the Suwannee River in White Springs, Florida while the later is located in the heart of the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia.

 

From there, we actually do turn north and head up to Savannah, Georgia.  We will be exploration that wonderful and historic city using the Fort McAllister State Park as our base.  We then move on to Charleston, SC. We will be staying at the James Island County Park.

 

Our next major destination will be the Jamestown – Williamsburg, VA area.  We last explored this area way back in the 1970’s.  Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in North America, founded in 1602. Williamsburg is home to the Colonial Williamsburg Historic District which is the restoration of a colonial American city, with exhibits dozens of restored or re-created buildings related to its colonial and American Revolutionary War history.

 

From there, it is just a short hop up to Washington D.C.  We will actually be staying nearby in Reston, VA at the Fairfax Lake Recreation Area.

 

In total, this trip will be a bit over 1500 miles and will take us a bit over 5 weeks to reach Washington D.C.  We are very excited and are anxious to start.  Whoo Hoo!

 

As I mentioned in the last blog, last Monday we drove up to Florence, Alabama to visit a few sights as we waited for the work on LeuC to be completed.  While up there, we visited Helen Keller’s birthplace, a Frank Lloyd Wright house and the Muscle Shoals Music Studio.  In the last blog, I described our time at the music studio and embedded into the blog a number of the famous songs that were recorded there.  Today, I will be sharing with you our visit to the Keller home and the Frank Lloyd Wright house.

 

My guess is that most of our readers may not be too familiar with Helen Keller.  However, when Mary Margaret and I were growing up, “The Miracle Worker” which was about the life story of Helen Keller, was required reading in Junior High School.  The book was based on the play of the same name which Anne Bancroft made famous on Broadway in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

 

It is a story of a little girl who within the first two years of birth (June 27, 1880), contracted a disease that left her deaf and blind.  Being so isolated from the world due to this disease, she was growing up as a near-feral child since her parents did not know how to deal with such a challenge.  Helen was very frustrated due to her lack of stimulus and would have massive temper tantrums throwing and breaking anything that she came in contact with and hitting and scratching her parents and their servants.  She was viewed as being totally uncontrollable.

 

In desperation, her parents contacted Alexander Graham Bell who was working with deaf children at the time.  Graham referred them to the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston.  A partially blind young woman had just graduated and was available to move in with the Keller family in an attempt to work with Helen.  This woman was Anne Sullivan, who became “The Miracle Worker”.

 

She faced numerous difficulties in breaking through and reaching into the dark place that Helen had retreated into.  Many of those difficulties Sullivan created herself.  Being a northerner with an Irish background, she had a real distain for slavery and everything surrounding it.  This caused real problems with the Keller family who were traditional southerners.  Helen’s father had been a Captain in the Confederacy, his wife was related to the iconic southern general and leader, Robert E. Lee and many of their servants were former slaves.  This antagonism between Sullivan and the Keller parents never abated.

 

Despite this self-inflicted difficulty, Sullivan was able to work with Helen and within a few months had broken through Helen’s isolation and started her down a path of communication and learning.  As it turns out, Helen was extremely intelligent and rapidly soaked in techniques to use palm spelling, Braille and methods to learn multiplication tables.

 

Within a few years, it was agreed that it would be best for the Keller family and Helen if Helen and Sullivan were to move up to Boston and attend the Perkins School for the blind.  Helen never again lived with her parents.

 

Helen’s formal education included attending the Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, the Horace Mann School for the Deaf, the Cambridge School for Young Ladies and in 1900, Radcliffe College, Harvard University.  She graduated from Radcliffe, becoming the first deaf-blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

 

Over the years, she learned to speak, wrote numerous books and articles and became a prolific speaker on aspects of her life.  She traveled to twenty-five different countries giving motivational speeches about deaf people’s conditions, she was a suffragette, pacifist, radical socialist, birth control supporter and helped to found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).  On September 14, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the United States’ two highest civilian honors. In 1965 she was elected to the National Women’s Hall of Fame at the New York World’s Fair.

 

Keller suffered a series of strokes in 1961 and spent the last years of her life at her home.  She died in her sleep on June 1, 1968, at her home, Arcan Ridge, located in Easton, Connecticut, a few weeks short of her eighty-eighth birthday.

 

Here are some of the photos I took while visiting Helen Keller’s birth home.

 

 

 

Today we got a peek of Spring.  Since we have arrived here in Red Bay, Alabama, the weather has been mostly wet and cold.  We have had an isolated day or two where the sun was shining and the temperatures snuck into the mid-60s.  However, this only happened during brief hiatuses between cold fronts that were bearing down on us, one after another after another.  Sigh!

 

This week is going to be different.  The forecast for the week is sun, sun and more sun, with temperatures building toward the 80s as the week matures.  There is another cold front coming toward us but it should not arrive until this coming weekend.

 

To celebrate the arrival of Spring, we hopped into our little Fiat and drove about an hour north to Florence, near the Tennessee border.  We wanted to visit the Helen Keller home, a Frank Lloyd house, and the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio.

 

I will write about the Helen Keller home tomorrow, along with our brief visit to the Frank Lloyd house (it was closed so we could not go inside) tomorrow.  Today, I am focusing on our visit to the sound studio.

 

It was kind of odd for us to go to a sound studio for a tour.  We love music but are not real music aficionados.  However, we thought that since we were in the area and there really is not much up here to see, we would take the chance and drive over to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio because so many great artists have cut recordings here, especially in our hey days of the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

 

To put this in better perspective, you need to understand that this studio was created way back in the hippy era, when drugs, booze and free love was the credo.  Back then, young people were a bit more willing to take a risk and start up something that was their dream.  In this case, there were four musicians, who played backup at the FAME (Florence Alabama Music Enterprises) studio.  They were Barry Beckett (keyboards), Roger Hawkins (drums), David Hood (bass), and Jimmy Johnson (guitar) and they called themselves the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.   Their nickname, “The Swampers”, was given to the group by the music producer Denny Cordell during recording sessions for Leon Russell because of their “funky, soulful Southern “swamp” sound”.

 

When the owner of FAME offered the foursome, a longer contract locking them to both the studio and a major New York music label, they decided it was not for them so they refused the contract and left to form their own studio.  With no money and a pipe dream, they leased a little building that was a former casket sales room which was located right across from a cemetery.  A minister had renovated the old building into a little music studio so he could practice and record his church’s choir. 

When Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records heard that the Swampers were trying to open up their own studio, he offered to invest in their enterprise as well as bring them some up and coming artists.  And, as they say: “The rest is history”.  Through the years the Muscle Shoals Music Studio recorded such music giants as The Rolling Stones, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Willie Nelson, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joe Cocker, Levon Helm, Paul Simon, Bob Seger, Rod Stewart, Cher and Cat Stevens. Over 75 gold and platinum songs were recorded there.  The studio at this location closed in 1979, and the recording facility was moved to new premises at 1000 Alabama Avenue.

 

To give you examples of what songs were recorded, I have put together some samples below.  Just in case you are not familiar with the titles, you can click on the audio bar below the listing and listen to the song.

1. “Brown Sugar” The Rolling Stones;
2. “I’ll Take You There” Staple Singers;
3. “Wild Horses” The Rolling Stones;
4. “Respect Yourself” The Staple Singers;
5. “Sitting in Limbo” Jimmy Cliff;
6. “”Night Moves” Bob Seger;
7. “Loves Me Like a Rock” Paul Simon;
8. “Kodachrome” Paul Simon;
9. “Gotta Serve Somebody” Bob Dylan;
10. “Valotte” Julian Lennon;
11. “Torn Between Two Lovers” Mary MacGregor;

We are s-l-o-w-l-y making progress on the last stage of our visit to the Tiffin Service Center here in Red Bay, Alabama.  We discovered today that we will be delayed in our anticipated departure by a few days.  We learned that after the paint is applied, we have to wait three days for it to cure before they can apply the top protective covering that is called Diamond-Shield.  It is a clear plastic sheet that protects the paint from rock impacts, bug etchings to the paint and general scratches that occur while driving down the road.  Furthermore, the application of this protect shield can only be done by a specialist and he, at times, can have his scheduled impacted by those in front of us.  Thus, our potential departure is now toward the end of this coming week, instead of this weekend or Monday.  Ugh!

 

We are also being further delayed because the people at the Tiffin paint and body bay discovered micro cracks in the front right corner of LeuC that were caused when we were hit by the mule deer that ran into us in New Mexico this last September.  They recommended that they re-fiberglass this area to remove the micro-cracks.  Therefore, yesterday they applied the fiberglass and today they sanded it smooth and applied the base primer paint.  They also sanded rough the side aluminum panels and applied the etching primer to them.  Here is what everything looks like as of today.

 

It will not be until Monday before they start painting these areas.  We are not sure how long the painting will take since we are dealing with hand painting the scroll work and multiple colors that will be used.  We hope the painting will be done by Monday late afternoon but that may be a pipe dream.

 

While we are waiting for all of this to be done, my “itchy butt” is getting worse and worse.  Normally, we would be taking day drives in our cute, little Fiat 500 to explore the area.  There are lots of neat things to explore that are not too far from here.  These include the Helen Keller home and the Muscle Shoals, Alabama music studios (where such artists as The Rolling Stones, Paul Simon, Wilson Picket, Bob Seger, Aretha Franklin and others recorded numerous famous songs).  We are also close to Tupelo, Mississippi, where Elvis Presley was born and raised and his birth home and museum are there.  There is also a wonderful golf course here in Red Bay with green fees of only $25.

 

Unfortunately, the weather has been just crappy with lots of rain and cold temperatures.  For example, it has been raining continuously for the last 24 hours with temperatures hovering in the low 50s.  This has dampened our desire to go outside and explore the area.  During our two weeks here in Red Bay, we have faced wave after wave of cold and rainy weather fronts passing over us.  This weekend will be no exception so it looks like we will just be hunkering down, staying warm and dry inside LeuC.  Sigh!

Yesterday and today we made great progress toward completing our stay here at the Tiffin facility.  We were concerned that we would have to wait many days before being moved from one type of work bay to another.  The concern was based on the number of other people and their motor homes waiting to get their work done and some of the horror stories we have heard.  We have met a number of people who have been here many weeks as they wait for spare parts to arrive.  Plus, we are just one of over 100 RVs that are here to get work done.  Thus, the waiting line to get into a specific work bay can be very long.

 

Fortunately, we have not experienced any significant delays in moving from work bay to work bay.  We started in work bay 35, where Greg and Jeremy addressed the majority of issues we had identified.  We were there for 6 weekdays as they addressed all but a few issues.

 

Yesterday, we were called into work bay 41 where the Scott, a Tiffin mechanic, addressed the service issues we had.  These included leveling the suspension system, adding a bit more antifreeze to our radiator and fixing our electronic motor oil level meter which had stopped working.  These minor issues were all taken care of in just 1.5 hours.

 

This morning, we were called into work bay 44B where our windshield was inspected and resealed to address wind noises that we were hearing at speeds over 60 MPH.  When we bought LeuC, we had noticed that there was a small spider crack in the windshield that had been caused by a rock when they transported LeuC from the Tiffin factory to the dealership in Mesa, Arizona.  The dealer did replace the windshield but it was not sealed properly, resulting in some wind noises that we could hear when driving above 60 MPH.  The work to fix this issue took most of today but only because Dave, the supervisor of this work bay, wanted to have the sealant properly set and dried before releasing us back to our campsite site.

 

With all of this work now behind us, we are waiting to be called into the last work bay before we are done with all of the work we requested.  This last work bay is the paint and body shop work bay.  We have been told that we should be called in this Thursday.  Once there, we will have the new compartment doors painted, the front cowling adjusted and a cracked panel near the front door step repaired.  We understand that any paint work takes two days so that the paint is properly cured before we will be released.

 

Thus, there is the possibility that we will be done by this Friday afternoon, just two weeks to the day that we arrived.  Whoo Hoo!  If this happens, we may be leaving on Saturday, Sunday or Monday morning, depending on when the paperwork is all completed.

Before I forget, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Easter.  Also, Happy April Fools Day.  It is not very often that these two days fall together.  I hope nobody was received a rotten Easter egg….

 

We have spent the last 6 business days inside Bay #35 here at the Tiffin facility, working our way through the long list of items we wanted to have worked on.  We are now getting down to the last of the items that Greg and his assistant, Jeremey can work on.  Once they are done, we will have to wait until the Mechanical Bay has room for us, and then wait some more until the Window Bay has room for us and then wait some more until the Paint Bay has room for us.

 

We wish to have the 6-month engine service done on LeuC while we are here and this will be done in the Mechanical Bay.  When we bought LeuC we noticed that there was a chip and small spider cracks in the windshield that was caused by a flying rock when they drove the bus from the Tiffin factory to the dealership in Mesa, Arizona.  Before we signed the papers, we made sure that the dealer would replace the windshield on his nickel, which he agreed to do.  After waiting a few weeks for the massive windshield to arrive, we had it installed but soon noticed that it had a couple of minor air leaks once we hit speeds over 60 MPH.  We opted to waited to have it fixed until we arrived here at the Tiffin facility since they have a specialized Window Bay and have all of the specialized equipment necessary to handle such massive windshields.

 

Monday, Greg and Jeromy will install three of our side compartment doors and a side panel.  There was a minor scratch across them and it was decided that it would be cheaper to replace them instead of trying to remove the scratch.   I was very pleasantly surprised at how inexpensive the replacement parts were.  That is one of the advantages of being at the factory where they are made.  Once the 3 doors and side panel are on, we will have to have them painted, which is why we will need to visit the Paint Bay.

 

To celebrate Easter, we participated in a wonderful potluck this afternoon.  Originally it was to be for 40 people but when word got out that we were having a potluck, it grew and grew and we ended up having over 100 people attend.  With a potluck, the more the merrier, as everyone brings a special dish so we ended up having all kinds of great food.  It was all very good and there were tons of it left over.  Mary Margaret made up two dozen devils eggs and a delicious strawberry angel food cake.

 

Along with enjoying the great food, we met a number of very nice people who shared lots of “Old timer” RVer tips and suggestions.  One of the suggestions was that we should join the Family Motor Coach Association or FMCA.  For $65/year, you can become a member and get all of their benefits.  The one benefit that Mary Margaret likes the most is that if anything ever happens to either one of us, they will fly you and your spouse home and then drive your RV to you home, all for free.  That is very attractive since if something should happen to either one of us, the other would prefer to be with the one who is ill and not worry about what to do with LeuC while we are gone.

 

One final note, I would like to mention that our alma mater, the University of Michigan, had its basketball team win its NCAA Final Four game against Loyola of Chicago in a very exciting game.  We play Villanova Monday night in the Championship game.  Villanova has been ranked as one of the top teams in college basketball all season and we are not given much of a chance in beating them.  However, who knows.  We were not given much of a chance to do this well so we will just have to wait to see what happens.  In the meantime, … Go Blue!!!!!

This week has been a work, work and more work week as early each morning we bundle LeuC and drive her from our “campsite” here at the Tiffin facility into Bay #35. Greg and Jeremy are assigned to that bay and they are dedicated to working on each bus that comes into their bay until all of the punch list items they can work on are taken care of. Our punch list ran to a whopping 46 items. Most of the items were trivial as you can see from below, but a few were significant.

Each day, from 7 AM to 3 PM, Greg and Jeremy roll up their sleeves and work on our items. It looks like tomorrow they will finish with all of the things they can work on. At that time, we will be moved into either the Mechanic’s Bay, the Window’s Bay, or the Flooring Bay or, at least, be placed on the waiting list to get into those respective bays.

During the five days that we have been in Bay 35 we have come to really like Greg and Jeremy and they have provided us so much insight and knowledge regarding making repairs or adjustments to LeuC. They have also shared some little-known secrets on how to operate her better. For instance, they showed us how we can project our navigation map up to the 42-inch flat screen TV that is at the front of the bus. Thus, we can see the navigation map and the routes we take so much easier as we are driving down the road. Whoo Hoo!

 
As we have gotten to know them, they have adopted us into their family and shared with us stories of their past and present. They have also shared with us where to go for the best food, shopping and so on. They have also told us some really great jokes and funny stories. It has been great getting to know them as they make all of the requested changes to our home on wheels.

Here is the list of items that we have requested be addressed while we are here at the Tiffin facility:

Items That Greg and Jeremy Can Work On In Bay 35:

1. Ceiling lights keep burning out or start rapidly flashing. So far about 45 lights have been replaced during three different times. Many of the same light fixtures have had their lights replaced. Also, I have noticed that the passenger side ceiling light will flicker when the microwave is operating. Currently, another 11 lights have failed. We need to get to the source of the problem instead of just replacing lights,
2. Kitchen lower left drawer slide will not close,
3. Passenger side diesel cap will not close,
4. We cannot both sit at the dining table as the seats are too close. We would like to move the forward seat back about 6 or so inches. If that is not possible, then we would like to remove the forward seat. Can we also re-center the table or replace it with a wider model?
5. Rear bathroom closet door wire stop is broken,
6. Replace wall hanging near refrigerator,
7. Shower towel rack is loose,
8. Shower hand wand holder bar is loose,
9. I cannot get the generator auto start to work when voltage drops below set point,
10. 0.4 V difference between front and rear voltage meters. Can they be calibrated or adjusted? The forward meter, which is closest to the house batteries has the greatest voltage drop,
11. Left rear wheel sound panel in wheel well came loose,
12. Light under kitchen sink is missing,
13. Front passenger swivel chair left arm rest is skewed,
14. Powder room toilet keeps flushing and will not stop,
15. No rear floor heat setting on panel,
16. Speedometer compass has stopped working,
17. Ceiling Light fixture near dining table is hanging,
18. Wooden screw plug over refrigerator is missing,
19. Floor heater does not work on diesel mode,
20. Floor molding by bedroom door has come off.
21. Washing Machine leg needs adjusting.
22. A docking light is loose and one is filled with water.
23. Driver side flat mirror jiggles.
24. Inspect wiring under passenger chair
25. Bed slide squeals excessively.
26. Cooler storage panel does not unlock when the remote is used.
27. Rear lights are out.
28. Repair leather on recliner and passenger chairs
29. Headlight accents lights are not working.
30. I am find black soot on hydraulic and fresh water pumps.
31. Install rear roof ladder,
32. Fire Extinguisher Recall,
33. Check hydraulic fluid level,
34. Inspect under carriage for loose nuts and bolts
35. Educate us on how to use the surround sound,
36. Go over each and every breaker with us.
37. Go over list of 6-month service needs.
38. Show us where the black and grey water tank sensors are located.
Mechanic’s Bay Work:
39. Four right side compartment panels need repair or replacing.
40. Panel near door folding steps has cracked, it needs repair,
41. Front cowling need adjusting,
42. Adjust air suspension system at left rear of bus about 1 inch,
43. Oil level meter is not working on driver side panel
44. Check engine antifreeze level and freshness.
Window Bay Work:
45. Get rid of whistle noise at both sides of windshield that occurs at various times and during various conditions when driving,
Flooring Bay Work:
46. Replace porcelain floor tile near refrigerator.

 

I wrote this post earlier this week and thought it had posted.  However, apparently the Interest connection was not good and it did not successfully post.  Thus, I am posting it now.

——————————————————————————————————————————Around noon today I glanced through the RV’s massive windshield and saw a familiar face smiling at us as he approached.  It was Jim, our son-in-law’s father.  He, his wife, Peggy, and their youngest son, Mark, had just arrived at our campground to visit us.  Last week they had driven from Tucson, Arizona to Atlanta to attend the shower of their other son’s wife’s (Katie) baby shower.  They were now heading back home to Tucson and were in our neighborhood here in Mississippi.  What a treat!

 

Jim is a former Air Force officer which allows him to use housing at various military bases when they travel.  As it turns out, there is an Air Force base in Columbus, Mississippi, just about 15 miles away from us, where they are spending a couple of nights.  They have rented a three-room house which is awesome.

 

We always enjoy getting together with Peggy and Jim and this afternoon was no exception.  Mary Margaret had prepared a wonderful lunch for their arrival.  She had baked a huge chicken pot pie and thrown together a tasty salad.  Everything was so good that seconds were offered and readily accepted.

 

We spent the afternoon catching up on things since the last time we saw each other was over the Thanksgiving holiday time period.  We discovered that Jim and Peggy are seriously kicking around the idea of buying an RV and doing some traveling on their own.  They would keep their house and use it as a base while taking some nice, extended travels in the RV.  It would be great if that happens and if it does, with a little planning, we might be able to do some adventures together.  That would be fun!

 

We also enjoyed sharing our views and insights on the terrible political mess that the US is in and we all are still trying to figure out what it will take for Congress to start acting in a responsible manner, putting the country’s best interests in front of their own personal best interests.  Not much optimism amongst the four of us on that subject…

 

Before we knew it, the afternoon was getting late and Peggy, Jim and Mark had to leave.  They will be getting up early tomorrow morning and continuing their long drive back to Tucson.  It was rather remarkable and fortuitous that we could get together in Mississippi for the afternoon.  While their visit was short, it was sweet and we are so thankful that they could stop by.

 

 

 

 

 

This afternoon Mary Margaret and I drove an hour to Florence, Alabama.  We had discovered last night that this town was going to be one of the over 800 places around the world where a March For Our Lives was going to take place.  We wanted to do more than just talk about the horrible shootings that are going on in our schools, we wanted to get off our butts and actively show support.

 

As we arrived, we reflected that it has been exactly 50 years since I last marched in a protest and 49 years since Mary Margaret has.  In 1968, I and a VW bus full of guys from our dorm at the University of Michigan drove the 600 miles to Washington DC to protest the war in Vietnam.  That march had a significant impact on my life as it made me realize after being gassed in the streets of Washington DC, that if I really wanted to create change in government, the most effective and long-term way to do that was to be in a position within government to effect change.  Eight years later, after getting married and graduating with my first two degrees, I joined the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and two years later was in charge of helping create and implementing their new hazardous waste regulatory program.  Six years later, I was fortunate enough to be selected to come to California to help reorganize their hazardous waste regulatory program.  I was doubly fortunate in that I was surrounded in both jobs with very talented, dedicated people, who were equally passionate about protecting our environment and helping change the way industries and local governments managed their hazardous wastes.

 

For Mary Margaret, when she came to the University of Michigan in 1969, she was equally passionate about the inequities in life and quickly got involved in the Black Action Movement and participated in various protests and activities on campus in support of equal rights throughout her years at the University.

 

Looking back on our lives, I am proud to say that we both, in our unique ways, were active in the two biggest cultural movements of our times: the equal rights movement and the environmental movement.

 

Now, it is a new era.  The mantle of involvement has been passed on and new agents of change are stepping up and are eagerly dedicating their energies to evoke change.  The two biggest cultural movements now are women’s rights and student rights for safety in schools.  We are very proud of our kids who have stepped up and have become active by marching in these protests and bringing their families with them and getting them involved.

When Mary Margaret and I arrived in Florence, we had little expectation of seeing a large group of people protesting the gun violence in our schools and the embarrassing lack of significant response by our elected officials.  After all, here we were in the very heart of the deep, red south, where gun laws are at a minimum and people are passionate about their rights to carry arms, even the deadly assault weapons that have played such a violent role in so many school mass murders.

 

We were pleasantly surprised to find that by the time the rally and march started, we were about 200 people strong. 

To start the program, seven students, ranging from a six grader, to high school students, to a young college student, all gave very passionate and inspiring speeches that evoked many cheers and much applause from the audience.

After the speeches, armed with protest signs that we made by hand at the rally, we all then marched around eight blocks of the central part of Florence.

 

During the march, I was proud of Mary Margaret’s passion as she was one of the marchers leading our chants.  She would yell out: “Protect Kids” and then the rest of us would return our shouts of: “Not the Guns”.  Man, it was like being back in our heyday!

 

During our time in support of the students we met many wonderful people, all as passionate about protecting our kids from school violence.  The marchers were of all ages, ranging from “old farts” like ourselves, to younger couples who have kids in schools, to new mothers and fathers, pushing their infants in strollers.  It cheered our hearts to see so many people making the point that enough is enough and changes need to be made to stop these horrible killings.

 

It was interesting to note that we also had a small group of NRA people doing their counter protest.  There were 5 or 6 men, holding signs in support of the NRA.

I do wish to mention that most of the people we talked to believe in the second amendment but recognize that times have changed since it was written over 200 years ago and that there needs to be more controls on people who buy and own guns and a ban on assault styled guns.

 

By the way, Stan, a fellow who I worked with back in my days in California, shared this YouTube video of Buffalo Springfield singing one of the many protest songs during the 60’s and 70’s.  I have posted it here and invite you to watch and listen to it.  The words are just as appropriate now as they were back in our heyday.

 

 

 

Yesterday, we received our update from Tiffin regarding where we stood on the waiting list to get into a repair bay at their factory in Red Bay Alabama.  Two weeks ago, when we were placed on the waiting list, we were 27th.  Based on this most recent update, we were now number 2.  Whoo Hoo!.

 

We called to make arraignments to drive up to Red Bay from our campground near Aberdeen, MS.  We discovered that the Tiffin folks are not the most organized since getting into a repair bay is not well coordinated with getting into their “campground”.  This is a big deal because one needs a place to park one’s bus during the night while the bus is getting worked on during the day.  Tiffin’s “campground” holds over 90 buses and it was packed full.

 

In Tiffin’s defense, they are currently swamped with people like us, trying to get in.  Apparently, the demand for RV buses has exploded in the last couple of years.  To meet this demand, Tiffin has increased its production.  We have been told that Tiffin is now building around 3000 units each year.

 

To make a long story short, after many calls to different people, we were finally told that if we were on site by 7 AM, we would be moved into a repair bay and that bay would be exclusively ours until the various issues we wanted addressed were completed.  We were also told that the “campground” office could not guarantee a site to park our bus each night, but if we were there at 7 AM, we would be in the front of the line to get in.

 

Armed with this information, Mary Margaret and I got up this morning at 4 AM, bundled up LeuC, and by 5 AM started down the road, heading for Red Bay, which was about an hour and half away.  I should note that as we hooked up our little Fiat behind LeuC, Mary Margaret noticed that LeuC’s tail lights were not working.  Grrrr!  Here we were about to drive 70 miles in the pitch-black darkness of night without taillights.  Fortunately, the taillights of our little Fiat worked so that cars and trucks traveling behind us would know when we were braking or when our turn lights were blinking.  Whew!

 

It was quite an adventure driving down the narrow, two lane windy roads of rural Mississippi.  Driving in darkness, I did not have the usual visual clues that I use during the day to keep LeuC inside the lane markers.  During the day, I can use our two side mirrors to watch how close our wheels are to the lane markers and when a vehicle is coming toward us in the opposite direction, I can ease over to the right to maximize the separation distance between us and the vehicle coming toward us as he passes.  This is especially important if the other vehicle is a truck with big mirrors hanging out from his cab.

 

However, since it was pitch black out, I could not see the lane markers in my mirrors.  I had to guess at how far over to the right I was, using only the right-side lane markers that I could see out in front of me.  Driving a car, this is not a very difficult thing to do but that is not true driving a 40-foot-long bus.   Your eyes are about 8 feet above the road and the bus is so much wider than a car that you do not have much room to play with before you are on the shoulder or off the road.  I think I adjusted to this new driving environment pretty well but it was a new experience.

 

To make this adventure even more so, I missed a turn and ended up on a very narrow side road with a sign that said “Road Ends”.  Gulp!  Our Google Maps app showed that the road curved ahead and would connect to another road that would take us back to our route but that ended up not being correct.  We ended up stopped in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch-black darkness on a one lane road where we could not turn around, looking at mounds of dirt placed across the road, blocking our way.  Double gulp!

 

We ended having to unhitch our little Fiat and I tried to slowly back LeuC up without running off the one lane road, down into gullies running along each side of our one lane road.  To compound the problem, I could not see a thing because LeuC’s tail lights and backup lights were not working.  We ended up having Mary Margaret slowing drive our little Fiat right behind me so I could follow her taillights in our rear facing camera monitor.  It was a bit harrowing but we finally passed a dirt driveway that allowed us to turn around and continue on our journey.  Whew!

 

We ended up arriving at the Tiffin factory at 7:02 AM.  We were told that we were in luck, as the “campground” had a site for us and were directed to site #77.

We then went into the repair bay office and were told to sit tight and they would get us into a bay as soon as one opened up.

 

We received a call around 10 AM and moved LeuC into bay #35.  Here we met Greg and Jeremy, who would be in charge of addressing our list of issues.  Based on our discussions, it looks like we will be here a week or more.  We shall see.